Several things in Paul Reynolds e-mail I would like to comment on...
I think that the line is far less clear than you paint it in your e-mail -
sorry to bring in the more compliated argument - but it really is.
The prejudice that many disabled people have met in their life comes from
those who do not shout about it. Most hate of, and discrimination of,
disabled people has come from 'respectable' quarters of society' not
fascists. You give them too much credibility, especially by banning them.
The other point about some prejudices not being worked out is meaningless.
So, some people are aware of their prejudices more than others and some
vocalise it more than others. So what ? The person at the other end still
feels it. Since a great deal of prejudice of disabled people came from the
medical and psychological disciplines, then these seem to me to be pretty
well worked out, and for a long time hard to reach.
I also think you are patronising to those people who voted BNP, because some
people agitated them to do so, they follow like working class sheep, unaware
of the fascists underneath the BNP skin. I think (I guess here myself) but
these people voted more for their feelings of exclusion as english working
class people in a northern town that has changed so quickly in character.
What you don't address is why some people feel like this and then become
violent about it. These things don't go away because you ban them. I'm
sorry, but whether the asian or black community has felt excluded for years,
this kind of argument takes us no futher. And unlike other countries in
Europe, historically, fascism has never been much of a threat in british
politics for various historical and cultural reasons.
The Black communties do not always live under seige. Sorry, you have to live
in them and experience them - like St Pauls or Toxteth in Liverpool where I
come from, to know that this is politcal identity hype, that alienates
communities even more. In London's Stratford, racism from black to asian is
sometimes spoken about. Yes, there is racism, on many different levels, and
cultural differences, but, lets not go down the road of believing that
historical cause should excuse a tit for tat mentallity and hostility in the
present. That's like disabled people blaming all able-bodied becuase of an
able-bodied legacy that may exclude us. Of course, history matters, but were
talking about different generations, different contexts and classes. We
should be working with history to get away from these negative dualisms and
'eye for an eye' mentality.
I'm sure that many black people do feel threatened etc, and understandbly
so. I often feel threatened on some white council estates. But, I'm sorry
the reality in St Pauls in Bristol is one where the drug dealers are black
and the police do not touch them. My point was this: the police aren't
always so down on other cultural ways of behaving, like gathering in large
groups, playing music really loud. This is the opposite of what was said
about asian protestors being prevented from going into the city-centre of
Oldham by the police. If my example is a stereotype then, I'm sorry that it
fits into this - you can ignore it if you want, but the point is that the
experience of race etc is not just one huge big negative experience at the
hand of police and the state, that can feed this bitterness between races.
And how do you deal with these differences in culture/ ways of living anyway
?
But, if you live in St Pauls the drug pushing is done by young black men.
And if you live there and you are white and come from a more traditional
english background that doesn't like twenty blokes playing loud music in the
front of your house, smoking ganja and getting stoned, then, heh, lets quote
a bit of history and culture to justify their behavoiour, while making other
peoples social cultural lives miserable, because they have an imperialist
heritage ! As for the dynamics of what causes this in Bristol, they are
simple, yes, simple. These guys come over from Jamaica, register as a
student and then sell drugs. Historical legacies, poverty in Jamaica and
culture have no excuse for causing this vocal anti social behaviour to those
people who have to live with it. You can qoute your imperialist, cultural,
historical reasons, but it is cold comfort when your having to deal with
this, not as a social scientist, but as a householder. It is so easy to fall
into academic arguments about contextualisation, the dynamics etc, when you
are not having to put up with this kind of stuff on the door step. I do so
myself, as a social scientist, but I feel you cannot write about this kind
of stuff without touching base with why people voted in Oldham for the BNP,
you will never address the racial problems in this country.
I answered the previous e-mails because I believe that banning racist groups
does nothing in the present day to address these issues in the long term,
unless you understand and address, however unsavoury the thought, those who
feel the need to go down this extreme political avenue of thought.
I also think that these arguments about how cultural/religous/national
beliefs and values are assimilated, both socially and geographically, goes
to the heart of identity debates - especially in disability studies. Do
other people, for example, feel that the Hindu belief of karma and
disability is fine ? Should we ban this 'belief system' because it suggests
we deserve to be impaired for are bad deeds in the past - that we are in
some way cursed ? Or should we live alongside it, knowing that this is a
different way of thinking about disability, or argue for change. Where do we
indeed draw the line ?
All the best,
Glenn.
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